Continuing our life-long odyssey of Greece, we visited the Saronic islands of Agistri and Aegina in September 2024. Travelling from Piraeus we spent 4 nights on Agistri to walk the wooded forest trails. We then hopped on a ferry across to the larger island of Aegina where we spent a week. The two islands contrast and complement each other well. Agistri is very quiet with tranquil views out to sea. Aegina is more developed, larger and busier. It was bustling when we disembarked as our arrival coincided with the annual four-day Fistiki festival. My Leica Q2 Ghost accompanied me on this trip and all images shown here were made with it.
The 1990’s was a decade that found me experimenting with many different film types that ultimately, in 1999, led to me switching solely to transparency film. An ongoing project to digitise my entire film library has started bringing to light these experiments. Some amounted to nothing more than a very brief dalliance with specific emulsions that were soon forgotten about.
Inspired by tales of bustling souks and the winding maze-like alleys of North African Medinas, we booked a trip to the Moroccan city of Marrakech. Our base for the week was a traditional Riad located in the old town. This meant we were in the heart of the bustling city that, for the uninitiated (such as ourselves), is a full-on assault of the senses. The first 24 hours were a bewildering experience as we adjusted to the sights, smells and general disorientation that came with navigating the labyrinthine network of such an ancient place.
The recent cold snap across many parts of the country provided an excellent opportunity for landscape photographers to practice their craft. Such extreme conditions are pretty rare in our part of the world, although things can be significantly different within several miles of our home address, particularly on the more exposed moors and edges.
It has been 14 years since I was last in Athens and an opportunity to revisit the city in September was met with much excitement. We spent most of the previous visit going around key tourist sites and museums which was pretty exhausting in the summer heat. This time around things were different and days were spent walking the suburbs, markets and parks which provided many excellent photo opportunities.
Our favourite time of year for photography in the UK is October and November. As the days get shorter and light becomes softer it lends a magic to the landscape like no other season. What it lacks in Spring’s optimism is more than made up for with misty mornings and striking colours. We have spent several days walking areas local to Matlock creating a project of this captivating time. It has been a powerful reminder of just how much I have taken some of these places for granted recently. Many locations are areas from my boyhood/youth and since then I have not revisited some for more than 45 years. With very few exceptions most locations have not changed much and those that have are merely victims of erosion, being spared from housing developments’ slow destruction. To stand in some of these places again was a poignant experience as I realised an entire lifetime has been shaped and slipped by since I last visited.
Located on the west side of Matlock in the lower part of Lumsdale lies a mill complex dating back to 1783. Originally constructed for the production of candlewick yarn, its use was expanded to take advantage of the booming textile industry in the Derwent Valley. My own experience of it was from the 1970’s onwards, by which time it was used as a bleaching and dye works under the ownership of the Drabble family for more than a century. On more than one occasion I recall chemicals from the works finding their way into the nearby Bentley Brook, killing off fish and other aquatic life not only in the brook, but also at the point the brook entered the river Derwent. Thankfully, these incidents no longer occur as the mill closed in 1999 and has been in a state of gradual dereliction since.
Several hundred feet above sea level and two kilometres inland from Aegina’s coast lies a truly magical pace. Accessible by foot or 4x4, a dirt road ascends into the bowl of a hot plain ringed by stark hills. Millenia ago this was an area of volcanic activity that has left an imprint on the landscape still visible today in the form of igneous rock deposits. Contrasting greatly with the surrounding Limestone, these deposits have been quarried for centuries, shaped into millstones and shipped around Greece.
What seemed like a never ending amount of rain and poor weather in the UK saw us book flights to Greece in search of a little sun. We decided to stay on the island of Kalymnos in a small hotel situated in the main port of Pothia, which is a 40 minute ferry ride away from Kos. Temperatures here could not have contrasted more with the UK and we were immediately plunged into 35C heat which was pretty energy sapping at first.